Why I decided to become a Mental Health Warrior

How deeply interconnected mental health is to our overall wellness, be it physical or financial, the learning came hard way through with my own struggles with mental health and experiencing my mom’s struggles with depression as her primary caregiver.

Pandemic has put the spotlight on this aspect of our wellness, which for many years was a dirty word and had a lot of stigmas attached. Stigma is a big reason many people don’t access therapy or even talk about mental health.

Who is Mental health warrior?

Anyone who accepts their mental health issues, challenges, and traumas; one who accepts this and educates themselves and recognizes their need for support is a mental health warrior. It takes courage to accept that there is something wrong with me, that is okay not to be okay, embrace what I cannot change and what I can work upon and change. To have this self-awareness, acceptance and become empowered by the possibilities to make the changes is within me is a path to become a mental health warrior.

Why I became a Mental Health Warrior

How do I keep the conversation going on about the importance of mental health in my environment? How do I do my bit to de-stigmatize discussions on mental health and make going to therapy something cool, a gift which give to ourselves? This question troubled me a lot when I was discovering the benefits of therapy firsthand.

I reflected on this, my therapy journey, how debilitating mental health can be, the pain my mother went through, especially when none, including me, understood her and what she was going through. I decided to:

1. Talk about it. I was very vocal about my therapy journey, progress, daily victories, and teachings through my blog posts and one-on-one conversation with friends, family members and clients.
2. Share my story. It started with me sharing my therapy journey with my circle of influence, gradually with clients, industry friends and faith comrades.
3. Volunteer and organize small support group session to reach out to a wider audience.
4. Resources. Started spending a few hours every week to find resources and innovative ways and means to educate people on mental health topics.
5. Doodling, deck cards, bookmarks, Instagram posts to empower people in my environment and light their way to better mental health.

(Dedicated to my Mom on her 3rd Death Anniversary)